Department of Pediatrics, andCenter for Health and Technology, University of California Davis Health System, University of California Davis, Sacramento, California; and
Department of Pediatrics, andCenter for Health and Technology, University of California Davis Health System, University of California Davis, Sacramento, California; and.
Pediatrics. 2014 Jul;134(1):e169-75. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-3912.
Family-Link is a videoconferencing program that allows hospitalized children and their parents to virtually visit family members and friends using laptops, webcams, and a secure Wi-Fi connection. We evaluated the association of Family-Link use on the reduction in stress experienced by children during hospitalization.
We offered Family-Link to pediatric patients who had an expected length of hospitalization equal to or greater than 4 days. We measured the stress levels of hospitalized children at admission and discharge using the previously published Parental Stress Survey. We used propensity score matching and multivariable linear regression methods to evaluate the relationship between the use of Family-Link and stress experienced by children during hospitalization.
We included a total of 367 children in the study: 232 Family-Link users and 135 non-Family-Link users. Using the propensity score matching method, we found that the use of Family-Link was significantly associated with a greater reduction in overall mean stress compared with non-Family-Link users among the cohort of patients who lived closer to the hospital and had shorter lengths of hospitalization (β = 0.23; 95% confidence interval, 0.03 to 0.43; P < .05). In this cohort, the reduction in overall mean stress was 37% greater among Family-Link users than non-Family-Link users.
The use of videoconferencing by some hospitalized children and families to conduct virtual visits with family and friends outside of the hospital was associated with a greater reduction in stress during hospitalization than those who did not use videoconferencing.
Family-Link 是一个视频会议程序，允许住院的儿童及其父母使用笔记本电脑、网络摄像头和安全的 Wi-Fi 连接，与家人和朋友进行虚拟探访。我们评估了使用 Family-Link 对住院儿童所经历的压力减轻的影响。
我们向预计住院时间等于或大于 4 天的儿科患者提供 Family-Link。我们使用先前发表的父母压力调查量表，在入院和出院时测量住院儿童的压力水平。我们使用倾向评分匹配和多变量线性回归方法来评估使用 Family-Link 与住院期间儿童所经历的压力之间的关系。
我们共纳入 367 名儿童：232 名 Family-Link 用户和 135 名非 Family-Link 用户。使用倾向评分匹配方法，我们发现与非 Family-Link 用户相比，居住在医院附近且住院时间较短的患者队列中，使用 Family-Link 与总体平均压力的显著降低相关（β=0.23；95%置信区间，0.03 至 0.43；P<.05）。在该队列中，Family-Link 用户的总体平均压力降低幅度比非 Family-Link 用户高 37%。
一些住院儿童和家庭使用视频会议与医院外的家人和朋友进行虚拟探访，与未使用视频会议的患者相比，住院期间的压力减轻幅度更大。
